People only get one chance at a first impression.

The same goes for houses, said Kathy Akers, a Realtor at Boone, Hill, Allen and Ricks in Rocky Mount. It can be as simple as a glance out a car window or a picture in the newspaper, but often a house's curb appeal decides whether a potential buyer will ever step foot in the house.

As with anything, if you don't have the good first impression, it doesn't matter what the rest of the house looks like. They are already in a mind-set that they are not impressed," Akers said.

A person can have the most gorgeous interior imaginable, but if the front yard is unkept and the front of the house screams neglect, it will be harder to sell the house, said Doug Bryant, a Realtor at Re/Max Classic in Nashville. The front of the house needs to be clean, warm and inviting.

"It is some small little things you can do sometimes like a new welcome mat. If the welcome mat when you walk up is all torn to pieces, that is going to kind of give them a negative vibe, because they are like, 'They can't put a new mat down here. What is the rest of the house going to look like?'" Bryant said.

Bill Lumpp, a Realtor at Century 21, the Combs Co. in Rocky Mount, advises clients to walk around the neighborhood to compare their houses to the neighbors' houses and see how they stack up.

"If the house next door has a beautiful yard and yours doesn't, then the person looking at the house is going to want the one next door instead of yours," he said.

To help homeowners improve the curb appeal of houses they want to sell, these brokers offered suggestions on some possible changes, upgrades and maintenance steps to take.